TheCorporateCounsel.net

March 1, 2012

A Farewell to Corp Fin’s Ella Phelps

I was very sad to learn that Ella Phelps passed away on Sunday after a long illness. Ella worked in Corp Fin as a secretary for 15 years – and then worked in the Office of Economic Analysis for another decade – before retiring last year. Ella was one of the secretaries in the banking group when I first started at the SEC out of law school in ’88.

And Ella ran the place. With her great wit, she was always entertaining us. Her desk geographically was in the center of the group – so you joked around constantly with Ella throughout the day. But more importantly, Ella spoke to all of our loved ones as this was in the era before voicemail (and computers) and she knew more about our personal lives than we did! For a while, I dated someone down in Chapel Hill and Ella – hailing from North Carolina – got to know her so well that they remained friends even after we broke up! I remember Ella telling many loving stories about her husband Charles and her two children, as well as her fabulous cooking adventures. She will be missed.

Here is a picture of Ella in the midst of a banking pod party in ’90. And here is a guest book where friends & family can post comments, as well as information about tomorrow’s viewing.

Warren Buffett’s Annual Letter to Shareholders

We now have the always fascinating annual shareholders’ letter from Warren Buffett, coming in at 21 pages. And this one includes some musings on his successor as noted in this WSJ article. Here are reactions to the letter from Ny Time’s DealBook and Kevin LaCroix’s analysis – and here is a Bloomberg article analyzing Buffett’s mea culpas.

Our March Eminders is Posted!

We have posted the March issue of our complimentary monthly email newsletter. Sign up today to receive it by simply inputting your email address!

– Broc Romanek